6 get notices in US student gang rape

Six students acquitted of the charges of raping a US national studying at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in April 2009, were issued notices by the Bombay high court on Monday.

A division bench of justice BH Marlapalle and justice Abhay Thipsay issued notices to Vinamra Soni, Harshvardhan Yadav, Jaskaran Singh, Anish Borkatki, Dev Colabawala and Kundaraj Borgohain on an appeal field by the state government challenging their acquittal by the trial court on October 6, 2010.

Additional public prosecutor Aruna Kamath-Pai said the court had called for the trial court's records. "The court has kept the appeal for hearing after six weeks," said Kamath-Pai.

The government had challenged the acquittal saying: "The trial judge disbelieved the version of the victim because there were various infirmities and contradictions in her statement."

The government claimed that the trial court failed to consider that the victim had undergone a traumatic experience and was mentally disturbed.

"The judge ought to have appreciated that the mental condition of the victim was quite disturbed and being a foreigner there was nobody to guide her. And she was administered cannabis because of which she was feeling dizzy and was not in a proper mental state of mind," the government's appeal said.

It has sought action under section 390 of the Criminal Procedure Code, where, if the appeal is admitted, the accused is arrested and produced before the trial court.